1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a copying apparatus, and more particularly to a copying apparatus which is provided with a discharge tray for discharging image recorded copy paper sheets without stapling or stamping, a staple or stamp tray for collecting the recorded sheets and a changeover device for guiding the sheets either to the discharge tray or to the staple tray wherein the changeover guiding device guides the recorded sheets to the staple tray under staple mode in which the recorded sheets are collected and stapled or stamped.
2. Brief Description of Related Art
In this kind of copying apparatus, it has heretofore been arranged to stop copying operation in the main body to prohibit copying operation when copied sheets are transported on the staple tray exceeding paper stack capacity under staple mode. Moreover, in some occasions, it happens that the sheets on the staple or stamp tray are stapled or stamped as they are, and such action is not always preferable. For instance, when it is required to successively copy a set of all originals without interruption or when it is preferable to staple all the copied sheets corresponding to a set of the originals by a machine which is provided with circulation type original forwarding device, such actions as described above are interrupted.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,672, there is disclosed a finisher of copying machine capable of continuously performing copying operation even if the containable number of copied sheets on a staple tray exceeds the limit for stapling process. It further accommodates copied sheets, however, it does not perform stapling process and can not deal with the case when the number of sheets exceeds the limit of accommodation. For instance, it may occasionally happen that the number of sheets exceed the limit of accommodation when operator does not know the limit of accommodation on the staple tray or without knowing the number of sheets of originals. In such a case, it has to be arranged to prohibit further copying operation and stop newly forward copy sheets from being guided into the staple tray.